ALAN PARDEW has warned his Toon players he wants no repeat of Newcastle United’s last taste of cup action when they take on Scunthorpe United tomorrow night.

The Newcastle gaffer suffered a painful 3-1 defeat at the hands of Stevenage in the FA Cup back in January and wants to erase bad memories in knockout competition.

Pardew’s side go into the game on a high after seeing off Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, yet the United manager feels failure to match the Iron at Glanford Park for all-round passion could dent the Magpies’ great start to the season.

Pardew is no stranger to the 23-year-old ground that houses just over 9,000 fans and managed Reading at the venue as a young manager 11 years ago, picking up a 2-2 draw in the old Division Two during his stint on the lower league circuit.

He told the Chronicle today: “It’s a tough place – the crowd at Scunthorpe will be buoyant.

“It’ll be what I would call a proper English game of football, and we can’t get caught out by the passion of the opposition.

“We need to match that, which was something we didn’t do at Stevenage.

“I was a new manager, and not particularly familiar with the squad, and I was disappointed that day.

“I don’t want to be disappointed on Thursday night.”

Pardew will decide his team selection for the trip to North Lincolnshire today at the club’s Benton base.

He admitted he was keen to maintain consistency, but also wants to give some of his fringe players a run out such as Mehdi Abeid and Haris Vuckic, while Sammy Ameobi’s terrific form of late could be deemed worthy of a reward.

Toon aces like Chieck Tiote and Sylvain Marveaux are strong contenders to start against Alan Knill’s win-less League One outfit.

Pardew said: “I’m caught between a couple of things.

“Obviously I want to keep the momentum we’ve gained.

“I want to keep a clean sheet, if we can.

“But I need to see some of the ‘squad’ players, but they’re not squad players – they’re potential first-team players.

“Some of them haven’t had an opportunity, and some could be involved on Sunday if we get an injury and someone needs to play.”

Meanwhile, QPR were again linked with a move for Joey Barton last night, with the midfielder still available on a free.